his wife, Ana de Córdoba.[1] Though a brother of the talented minister of state, the marqués de Sonora, and having a better heart, Matías de Galvez was not endowed with the same powers of mind. But best of all he had sound common sense and indefatigable industry. He had been a plain farmer, and he looked like one; and he loved a farmer's life, from which he had been drawn at his brother's elevation to high official position near the king's person. He was not afraid, and on every proper occasion showed a martial spirit; but to inflict punishment upon another was an infliction upon himself. His solicitude for the general welfare, and particularly for the relief of the poor and afflicted, was well known both in Guatemala and Mexico. He was cheerful, witty, frugal, modest in his tastes, affable, and was reputed pious; and so disinterested was he, that having held high and lucrative offices, his estate did not probably reach, at his death, the value of 50,000 pesos.[2]
On the 29th of April, 1783, he took possession of the baton of command ad interim,[3] at the town of San Cristóbal Ecatepec, and not at Guadalupe, as his predecessors had done, owing to the bad condition of the reception house at the latter place. It had been the viceroy's intention, on account of his advanced age and bodily infirmities, to enter the city in a carriage; but some difficulty about precedence having been raised by the city council, he cut it short by mounting a gentle horse and riding into Mexico. He was the last viceroy that entered the city on horseback.[4] The pas-
- ↑ Panes, Vir, in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS., 53.
- ↑ Galvez, Solemnes Exequias, 1-31; Bustamante, Suplemento, in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 52-3; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, i. 147.
- ↑ On the 19th of November of the same year the mail brought out his commission as 'virey en propiedad.' Gomez, Diario, 160, 171.
- ↑ The act of receiving the command at San Cristóbal was approved in the royal order of Aug. 8, 1783, which prescribed that in future such act should take place there. The precedence that the city council claimed was disallowed, and the king ordered March 14, 1785, that there should never be a second public entry, to save the city, the consulado, and the people in general the onerous expenses it entailed. The audiencia declared its obedience June 25, 1785. Ordenes de la Corona, MS., iii. 42, 54. Panes, Vir., in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS. 126.
